Radio de Deacon Blue
Deacon Blue are a Glaswegian pop band. The name of the band is taken from the title of a Steely Dan song, whose lyrics seem to reflect the group's early outlook: Formed in 1985, this predominantly Glaswegian act were one of the top-selling UK bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The group's members were Ricky Ross, Lorraine McIntosh, James Prime, Dougie Vipond, Ewen Vernal and Graeme Kelling. Ross, a former school teacher originally from Dundee, was the group's frontman, penning the vast majority of Deacon Blue's songs. He married female vocalist Lorraine McIntosh in the later years of the band's career. In 1986, the band contributed a track ("Take the Saints Away") to a compilation cassette entitled Honey at the Core, featuring then up-and-coming Glasgow bands, including Wet Wet Wet and Hue and Cry. The band's debut album, Raintown, produced by Jon Kelly and released in 1987, is regarded by many as the band's finest effort, spawning the singles "Dignity", "Chocolate Girl" and "Loaded". Many consider Raintown to be a concept album, since nearly all the songs contribute to the overall theme of being stuck in a dead-end life in a deprived city, longing for something better. The city that the album's title refers to is Glasgow, and the memorable cover art of the album is a photograph (by the Scottish-Italian photographer Oscar Marzaroli) of the River Clyde's docks taken from Kelvingrove Park on a miserable day.